NCAA FIELD HOCKEY: #9 Wellesley Tops Saint Joseph’s, 3-1‏

WELLESLEY, Massachusetts – Saint Joseph’s College (6-2, 3-0 GNAC) fell to #9 Wellesley College (8-0, 2-0 NEWMAC), 3-1, in a non-conference field hockey contest on Tuesday afternoon.
 

THE LEAD
Wellesley scored all three of their goals in the 30 minutes, as freshman Rachel Hwang (Campbell, Calif.), senior Hannah Flesch (Rockville, Md.) and senior Anissa Sridhar (London, Ontario) propelled the hosts to a 3-0 cushion before the break.

The Monks scored the only goal of the second half when first year Michalia Parent (Westborough, Mass.) pounced on her own rebound in front to net her sixth of the season.
 

NOTABLES

• Parent recorded five of the Monks’ nine shots and senior Amanda Celata (Dedham, Mass.) steered a pair of attempts on goal in the loss

• The loss snaps the Monks’ six-game winning streak

• Sridhar paced the Blue with eight shots, including seven on target

THE KEEPERS
SJC freshman Megan Baker (Gorham, Maine) was solid in net, making a career-high nine saves in the setback.

Wellesley junior Lucy Hurlock (Needham, Mass) and first year Maggie Connelly (Duxbury, Mass.) each made four saves, as Connelly came on in the second half in relief.

TEAM TOTALS
Wellesley held considerable advantages in both shots (17-9) and penalty corners (12-5) in the win over Saint Joseph’s.

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING
Today’s game was the Monks’ first-ever meeting versus Wellesley, a team that has advanced to the third round of the NCAA DIII Tournament in each of the last two seasons.

Saint Joseph’s is now 1-2 all-time against New England Men’s and Women’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) foes. The Monks have split a pair of games with NEWMAC opponent Wheaton College over the years and defeated the Lyons, 2-1 in strokes, in a thrilling ECAC Tournament contest on November 7th, 2007.

NEXT!
Saint Joseph’s will travel to Boston on Saturday for a key Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) matchup with Simmons College (7-2, 2-1 GNAC), the reigning GNAC Champions, at 11:00 AM. The Monks are 14-6 all-time versus Simmons and have defeated the Sharks in 10-consecutive meetings dating back to the 2006 campaign.